Makeal Flammini comes home for solo show at Sky High

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When Sky High Gallery owner Faythe Levine was traveling earlier this year, she spent some time in Ireland and made a point to visit to the studio of Milwaukee artist Makeal Flammini, who has spent the last nine months living in the small, rural village of Ballybaughn.

Levine decided that some of the mixed media drawings that Flammini has been working on, influenced by personal interpretations of Irish history and folklore, should get a showing in gallery back home in Milwaukee. Flammini’s pencil and gouache works have a dark humor and explore themes that won’t surprise the Irish among us: famine and religion.

Many will know Flammini not only for her own work but as a longstanding community organizer. She is the founder and director of the mobile arts organization The Parachute Project, a group that creates temporary exhibits in forlorn architectural spaces, which she organizes with Ella Dwyer and Jessica Myszka. She’s also been involved in the Cream City Collectives and the Borg Ward collective.

The solo show of new work by Flammini opens Saturday at the Sky High Gallery, tucked into the back of the Sky High Skateboard Shop, 2501 S. Howell Ave., with a reception and welcome home for the artist from 6 to 10 p.m. The opening also marks the unveiling of Sky High’s newest temporary mural by Eriks Johnson. For more information: www.skyhighmilwaukee.com.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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